Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

In December, the cold air in Miyagi Prefecture seeps straight down your collar and into your neck.

The Shinkansen train pulled into Sendai Station. The doors opened, and Hinata Shoyo, carrying a heavy sports bag that seemed to be crushing him, was the first to rush onto the platform. The muscle soreness from days of intense training was completely forgotten; the little guy had only one thing on his mind: touching a ball.

Lu Ren slowly walked out, dragging his suitcase, yawning, and zipping his down jacket all the way up. "Slow down, your legs just got out of the provincial team's meat grinder, don't break them halfway there."

Hinata ignored him, jumped twice on the spot, and ran towards the exit.

Half an hour later, at the Karasuno High School gymnasium.

Pushing open the peeling iron door, the familiar smell of anti-slip wax mixed with the lingering odor of sweat hit me. The training hall of the Guangdong Sports Team was ridiculously large, with a brand-new synthetic track and blindingly bright lights. Wuye's gymnasium, on the other hand, had two broken light bulbs, and the floor was covered with pits and scratches.

Hinata stood at the doorway and took a deep breath.

"This is still the best place." He threw his bag in the corner and changed into his sneakers.

The sneakers creaked dryly on the wooden floor. There were people in the stadium.

On the other side of the net, a figure tosses a volleyball. A run-up, a jump, a swing of the arm. The volleyball hits the corner of the baseline with a dull thud.

Kageyama Tobio turned his head, his gaze passing over the net and landing on Hinata.

The national youth team's training camp just ended yesterday. This setter didn't even go home, going straight to the school gymnasium. The two looked at each other across the net. There were no warm greetings of long-awaited reunions, no polite inquiries about the training camp's progress. Their communication style was simple and direct.

Kageyama walked across the net, stood in front of Hinata, and looked down at him.

"You can jump even higher." These were the first words Kageyama spoke.

Hinata was stunned. He had been tormented by that towering libero for seven whole days in Guangdong, practicing receiving the ball every day, barely managing to spike the ball more than a handful of times. Now that he had just returned, the first thing he said was that he wasn't jumping high enough.

"Huh?" Hinata's eyes widened. "My vertical jump is now the same as Tsukishima's! You only spent a few days with the national youth team, and your expectations have gotten that high? What, you're so used to passing the ball to two-meter guys that you look down on 1.64-meter guys now?"

Lu Ren pushed the door open and walked in, just in time to hear this. He closed the door behind him and leaned against the wall to watch the show.

Kageyama, too lazy to pay attention to Hinata's unreasonable behavior, walked to the sidelines and picked up a volleyball. "I met someone in Tokyo. He's shorter than you, but he can jump much higher."

Hinata's eyes lit up, his earlier temper vanishing without a trace. "Shorter than me? Jumps higher than me? Who is it?!"

"Hoshino Hikaru," Kageyama called out a name, taking the ball and backing away. "He told me that jumping isn't about jumping around on instinct. Your jump wasted too much forward momentum."

Hinata was completely confused: "Kinetic energy? What kind of energy? Can you eat it?"

Lu Ren sighed beside him: "If you failed physics, shut up and watch his demonstration."

Kageyama stood behind the baseline and tossed the ball. He didn't serve directly, but instead simulated the approach run of a spiker.

The first two steps were slow and steady, but the third step suddenly accelerated. Hyuga stared intently at Kageyama's footwork.

With his final step, Kageyama slammed his right foot heavily onto the floor.

"Thump!"

A deafening, piercing thud echoed through the empty stadium. This wasn't an ordinary footstep; it was the sound of an entire body weight, along with the momentum of a run-up, slamming into the floor. Immediately afterward, the left foot snapped to its side.

The ground reaction force traveled along his calf muscles, knees, and thighs, all the way to his waist and abdomen. Kageyama was lifted off the ground.

Hyuga looked up. Kageyama's altitude was much higher than usual.

After landing, Kageyama turned around and looked at Hinata, who was still in a daze. "Did you understand?"

Hinata swallowed hard: "What was that 'thump' sound...?"

"Brake!" Lu Ren walked over and explained to Ying Shan, "In the past, the faster your running speed was, the more easily your body would lurch forward when you jumped. That's called long jump, not high jump. You were distributing all your power horizontally. What Ying Shan just demonstrated was using the last step to firmly plant yourself on the ground, forcibly converting forward speed into upward thrust."

Kageyama nodded: "That guy named Hoshino said that as long as you find the right point of leverage, even a small person can have absolute air superiority."

Hinata looked down at his toes. He replayed Kageyama's movements in his mind: running up, accelerating, slamming into the ground, jumping.

"I'll give it a try." Hinata ran to the three-meter line.

There's no ball, just a simple jump. The first two steps are for acceleration, and the last step is a powerful stomp with the right foot.

"Smack."

The voice was weak and powerless. Hyuga jumped even lower than usual, lost her balance in the air, stumbled upon landing, and almost fell.

Kageyama mocked mercilessly, "Idiot. Your center of gravity is too high; you can't control your speed at all."

Hinata gritted his teeth: "Again!"

The second time, the third time, and the fourth time.

The stadium echoed with the sounds of hurried footsteps and jumps. Hinata, like a tireless machine, repeated his run-up again and again. Sometimes he stepped too hard, and his ankle ached; sometimes he exerted the wrong force, and he fell forward.

Lu Ren pulled over a folding chair, sat down, and took a mint out of his pocket and popped it into his mouth.

"You're quite the setter," Lu Ren said, looking at Ying Shan. "You went to the national youth team for training, but instead of learning any advanced tactics, you were just busy secretly teaching your own attackers jumping techniques?"

Kageyama wiped his sweat and said stiffly, "The higher he jumps, the more passing options I have."

"Tsundere," Lu Ren commented.

Footsteps sounded outside the door. Tsukishima Hotaru and Yamaguchi Tadashi pushed the door open and entered. The two had just finished intensive training for first-year students in the prefecture.

Tsukishima still looked like he hadn't woken up yet. He pushed up his sports glasses and glanced at Hinata, who was running around all over the place.

"The king went to Tokyo and brought back a souvenir that makes single-celled organisms like frogs jump?" Tsukishima said, his sarcasm overflowing.

Yamaguchi chuckled dryly from the side: "Ayumi, what new move is Hinata practicing?"

Hinata stopped, panting, and pointed at Tsukishima: "Tsukishima! You wait! Once I master this 'thump-style jump,' I'll be able to fly over your head and spike the ball!"

Tsukishima smirked: "The laws of physics don't allow you to dream. With your weight, you couldn't even fly if you shattered the floor."

Hinata, exasperated, turned to Kageyama: "Pass me the ball again! With the ball in my hands, I'm sure I'll find my rhythm!"

Kageyama walked to the net and picked up a volleyball. "This is the last time. If you can't find the right point to generate power, don't practice today."

Hinata retreated to the backcourt and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, his mind flashing back to the two-meter-tall blockers he had seen at the Guangdong Sports Training Center. To break through those walls in the national competition, speed alone wouldn't be enough; he needed even higher accuracy.

Open your eyes, Hyuga starts.

First step, maintain a steady pace. Second step, accelerate.

His gaze was fixed on the volleyball in Kageyama's hands. Kageyama touched the ball with both hands, and the ball flew in an arc towards the net.

Hyuga stepped into the three-meter line. He lowered his center of gravity and tensed his thigh muscles.

last step.

The sole of his right shoe scraped violently against the wooden floor. He put all his weight on this step, landing on his heel and quickly transitioning to the ball of his foot.

"Thump!"

A dull, powerful impact.

This time, there was no forward momentum. All the kinetic energy was forcibly redirected, rushing up the spine to the top of the head. Hyuga pushed off the ground with both feet, and his whole body shot upwards like a cannonball.

Tsukishima's eyes widened slightly.

As they watched, Hinata's body rose higher and higher. His waist went above the white band of the net, and his chest went above the white band.

That was a commanding position that was completely out of place for someone who was 1.64 meters tall.

Hinata stretched his body in the air, raising his right arm high. The volleyball landed precisely on his hitting point.

Swing your arm and smash the ball.

The volleyball bounced off the three-meter line in the opposite half of the court and headed towards the ceiling.

Hyuga landed, his knees slightly bent to cushion the impact. He stared blankly at his hands, then looked up at the net. With that jump, he had seen the entire other side of the net. Not through the gaps in the blockers' hands, but a solid, unobstructed view of the entire half of the court.

The stadium was silent for a few seconds.

"Did you see that?!" Hinata jumped up and shouted at Kageyama, "That shot! It was super high!"

Kageyama looked at his reddened fingers, his tone still calm, but his eyes couldn't hide his excitement: "Barely passable. The force exertion isn't fluid enough, and the movements are too stiff."

"Stop talking nonsense! One more ball!"

Lu Ren sat in the chair and chewed the mint in his mouth.

He looked at Hinata and Kageyama, then glanced at Tsukishima, who was standing thoughtfully on the sidelines.

The national youth team's vision, the county training camp's defensive system, and the numerical foundation bolstered by cross-server training—these first-year students are absorbing knowledge at an astonishing rate.

The ticket to the national competition has been secured, but this is just the beginning.

"Hey, you little rascals." Lu Ren stood up and clapped his hands. "The new skills are almost ready. Spring High is about to start, we should figure out how to use this new setup to teach the top teams across the country a lesson."

Hinata turned around, his head covered in sweat, but he was smiling brightly.

"Lu Ren, I now feel that the entire national internet is nothing special."

Lu Ren walked over and slapped Hinata on the back of the head.

"Don't make any big promises. Just don't wet your pants when you encounter a 2.1-meter blocker."

Karasuno's volleyball team has once again assembled. The code to air superiority has been cracked, and this multi-pronged chimera has finally been equipped with its most lethal fangs.